All CRACKED up!

QUIP: I often ask for assistance in the kitchen. However, I have learned - painfully, from experience - to never ask anyone to crack eggs for me.

The reason? Because once I was rushing to get ready for a group of guests and relied on help to crack eggs for a full five-pounds worth of cute, little chicken patties - special samples of the very recipe that graces the cover of my second cookbook.

I must have had an extra angel on my shoulder that evening because when I bit into one of the patties, I crunched down on some tiny, hard shards of eggshell that were buried within.

"Oh no!" I wailed. "How can this be?" There is no way I could take a chance and serve food that might be eggshell-infused to guests. I had to start over – Argh!

While making the second batch, which I did alone, I proceeded with extra caution all the while thanking the Lord for giving me the patty with eggshell in it. Otherwise, I would have never known the batch was tainted and unfit to serve guests.

TIP: There is no two ways about it. Finding foreign matter like eggshell in your food is most definitely unpleasant! However, there are three simple tricks to help you avoid an untimely disaster like mine!

The first trick is to reduce the number of small shards created when breaking that egg. What's interesting is that when you break an egg the traditional way - tapping it on the edge of a bowl, counter, etc - you are much more likely to create lots of little shards of shell that, because of the edge digging into the egg, are pushed into the egg - and wherever that egg is going, they will too! However, if you break that egg against a flat surface, like the top of the counter, the egg shell will crack into larger pieces that in turn won't get pushed into that egg!

The second trick is to simply NEVER break an egg directly into the recipe. Instead, break the egg into a dark colored dish so you can see - very clearly - if any eggshells have sneaked their way in. If you do see any egg shells, the best tool for fishing them out is a bigger piece of shell. The little eggshell pieces will magically cling to the bigger shell and come right out!

The third and final trick, which I have already alluded to, is to NEVER let anyone else crack open those eggs - Lesson learned!